Ireland becomes fourth country in world to celebrate Black History Month

RobYourBuilder

TheBeardedLady wrote: »

It's not your place to mod this thread.

First you asked why I cared, then you told me to chill and finally you told me to go to bed. It was you trying to shut down discussion.

Nodin

RobYourBuilder wrote: »

First you asked why I cared, then you told me to chill and finally you told me to go to bed. It was you trying to shut down discussion.

Ahh yes, discussion.....you going to explain your 'guilt on crack' remark?

TheBeardedLady

RobYourBuilder wrote: »

First you asked why I cared, then you told me to chill and finally you told me to go to bed. It was you trying to shut down discussion.

Asking you why you cared = a question

Telling you to chill = telling you to chill

Telling you to go to bed = helpful advice - it was bedtime

TheBeardedLady

I'm actually going to respond to your reasons if that's what you want:

I care for three reasons. I can guarantee this will be a guilt trip on crack.

Why?

Secondly, due to the double standards. If a group of white Europeans or those of European descent came together and put on a white history month to celebrate their shared history and culture there would be a public outcry and they would be declared racist.

I'm guessing you wouldn't be part of that public outcry and you wouldn't be the one to start a thread about it either. Am I right?

Let's get real here, if you can give me an example of any harmless and non-racist group celebrating their whiteness, you might start to convince me. Just one example is all I need.

Thirdly, this quote from one of the organisers;

“What it means to be Irish is going to completely change, it’s already started … it will have completely transformed within two generations.”

Imagine emigrating to a country and coming out with that quote. Who is this black American to tell us what it means to be Irish?

Sounds to me like he's making a realistic prediction, not dictating to us what it means to be Irish. They're giving an opinion so I'm not sure why you're getting so upset. He or she is entitled to their opinion. Looks like you're desperately trying to search for something to find fault with.

I live in Spain, my boyfriend is Spanish and if we have kids and live here, we're going to make an impact on the Spanish identity along with all the other foreigners who've come here in recent times and who've had kids with locals. Denying that doesn't make any sense.

Kevin the Kid

Let whoever wants to celebrate, celebrate. You are all invited. No big deal.

0byme75341jo28

Jesus RobYourBuilder, could you be a bit less miserable?

TheBeardedLady

Gas! Just had a look at the Black History Month Ireland Facebook page and the only negative, worrying thing I can find on it are the horrible racist comments posted on the page by pricks. Some of the comments are disgusting but fair play, the organisers/administrators of the pafe have handled them with dignity and respect. They haven't been deleted, so you can find them for yourself.

This is what it's all about:

Our aims are to:
promote knowledge of Black and African history, Arts & cultural heritage
disseminate information on positive Black achievements and contributions to the societies
Create awareness and heighten the confidence of Black people in relation to their cultural heritage.
Focus on promoting and celebrating the achievements of Black people and our communities

Mission
To break Stereotypes seen in mainstream society and media of what it meant to be black, and create role models that the youth don’t care what you looked like, as long as you cared about them.

Purpose
The purpose of Black History Month is apparently to promote and celebrate the achievements of Black people and communities.
BHM is used to revivify inequalities of the past such as servitude and exclusion

We have reached a time when black history will be so integrated into all culture that we study it along with every other history.

Sounds reasonable to me. Black people (not from one particular nationality or continent) have been discriminated against to varying degrees around the world for a long time purely because of the colour of their skin and even on that Facebook page you can find a sample of the attitudes that exist out there.

The fact that Ireland is one of the few countries in the world holding this event makes me proud. I hope it opens the minds of a few. Fair fcuks to them.

TheBeardedLady

And here's what the line up for the event. Genuinely can't see what the problem is. I wonder did RobTheBuilder even have a look? You can go along or you can stay at home; like any event, you have a choice to attend or not.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/728508/325362.jpg

RDM_83 again

While it may not be a big issue particularly because its a small scale event and the goal of the event may be noble, names are important, they tell you a lot about the mindset of the people involved and their thinking (or lack of thinking). There is countless controversies and activism campaigns about this type of issue.

Where this gets troublesome on a level aside from the idea of shared skin color being a valid cultural characteristic across continents and 50,000+ years of separation, as it equates Blackness with African.
The naming of the event in such a way or the lack of awareness that naming the event as such may be troublesome displays either a lack of awareness of significant events in modern African history and Africas demographics or something potential more worrying. The expulsion Ugandan Asians by Idi Amin in 1972 partially on racial grounds, the lack of awareness of significant populations such as the Tuareg and much of the North African/Arabic populations (ironic considering Gaddafi's fondness of the idea of Pan-Africanism).
Also the idea that your culture identity not by your choice but by the tone of your skin is bizarre for this group of organizations , the white Boers for all the fondness of racist profiling themselves are justifiably considered African having a history on the continent of 400 years that a lot longer than the 7 years it takes before someone can consider themselves Irish.

Edit:

TheBeardedLady wrote: »

Sounds reasonable to me. Black people (not from one particular nationality or continent) have been discriminated against to varying degrees around the world for a long time purely because of the colour of their skin and even on that Facebook page you can find a sample of the attitudes that exist out there.

'People of color' is often used instead,because its more inclusive and IMO is justifiable as non-white peoples within a European context may have a shared experience of 'outsider' status and discrimination. That does bring it back around to the 'white guilt' argument though which was and its applicability to an Irish context.

TheBeardedLady

RDM_83 again wrote: »

While it may not be a big issue particularly because its a small scale event and the goal of the event may be noble, names are important, they tell you a lot about the mindset of the people involved and their thinking (or lack of thinking). There is countless controversies and activism campaigns about this type of issue.

Where this gets troublesome on a level aside from the idea of shared skin color being a valid cultural characteristic across continents and 50,000+ years of separation, as it equates Blackness with African.
The naming of the event in such a way or the lack of awareness that naming the event as such may be troublesome displays either a lack of awareness of significant events in modern African history and Africas demographics or something potential more worrying. The expulsion Ugandan Asians by Idi Amin in 1972 partially on racial grounds, the lack of awareness of significant populations such as the Tuareg and much of the North African/Arabic populations (ironic considering Gaddafi's fondness of the idea of Pan-Africanism).
Also the idea that your culture identity not by your choice but by the tone of your skin is bizarre for this group of organizations , the white Boers for all the fondness of racist profiling themselves are justifiably considered African having a history on the continent of 400 years that a lot longer than the 7 years it takes before someone can consider themselves Irish.

Edit:


'People of color' is often used instead,because its more inclusive and IMO is justifiable as non-white peoples within a European context may have a shared experience of 'outsider' status and discrimination. That does bring it back around to the 'white guilt' argument though which was and its applicability to an Irish context.

Fair enough. I would agree that the name of the event wouldn't have been what I would've chosen myself and I would like to hear the reasoning behind it, but I'm arguing that the event itself is nothing to get upset about looking at what they've planned.

The white guilt argument I don't buy into at all. Why would you ever choose to feel guilty (because guilt is a choice) about something you'd no part in? I doubt they'll be sitting there blaming white Irish for all their woes, guilt tripping people to get them on board (and it looks like there's plenty of white Irish involved as well). It looks like it's simply an event with music, film, art, some discussions perhaps to inform people of the origins of black people in Ireland and dispel some of the myths surrounding their motivations for moving here or how they live their lives, for example. Ignorance breeds fear and I suppose they're trying to put an end to that ignorance to some degree (the comments on the Facebook page prove it's out there). Hardly a bad thing.

I'd head along if I was at home but guilt is nothing something I'd choose to feel. I'd go along out of curiosity because, tbh, I'd like to know more about the origins people who've decided to make Ireland their home and it interests me.

RDM_83 again

TheBeardedLady wrote: »

It looks like it's simply an event with music, film, art, some discussions perhaps to inform people of the origins of black people in Ireland and dispel some of the myths surrounding their motivations for moving here or how they live their lives,

Actually I have another problem with the event title, how can it be Black History month and have only one history based event and none in Dublin Thanks for the link though hopefully there is more detail about the gigs on the actual page.

I know I am thinking far too much about this for whats a tiny event, but its interesting to see that the event is obviously backed by the Nigerian embassy and if that will have any impact on the content (in terms of their various repressive actions over the years)